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Ottawa mobilizes FINTRAC to counter extortion

Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe
Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne at a 2025 US-Canada summit in Toronto. Photo: Katherine KY Cheng/Getty Images

Alexander Barzacanos

1 min read
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FINTRAC’s ability to respond to organized extortion networks has been improved with new measures.

Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, alongside other ministers, has announced that Ottawa will mobilize FINTRAC to strengthen Canada’s ability to detect, disrupt, and prevent extortion, with a particular focus on the most affected provinces: Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta.

The upgrade comes in the wake of several major recent upgrades to Canada’s anti-money-laundering (AML) regime generally, including proposing to establish the Canada Financial Crimes Agency, and a C$1.7 billion ($1.24 billion) package to strengthen the RCMP’s capacity against transnational organized crime.

New measures

FINTRAC’s new anti-extortion playbook is built around pursuing five action items:  

  • Bolstering resources so law enforcement receives more timely and relevant financial intelligence to identify criminal networks and support investigations.
  • Launching a “Countering Extortion Partnership” with banks, credit unions, and financial service providers of virtual assets, alongside partners such as OSFI, the RCMP, and local police, aimed at enhanced information sharing and best practices.
  • Assigning dedicated liaison officers to work directly with local police in targeted regions.
  • Issuing a “Targeted Indicator Profile” (TIP) to help reporting entities recognize common extortion-linked patterns and behaviors, with the goal of faster and more accurate reporting.
  • Publishing strategic intelligence on how criminals launder extortion proceeds, including indicators and typologies.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree stated that “Communities across Canada are feeling the impact of extortion” and added that the new steps “give police even more tools to target extortion and cut off the illicit money that fuels it.”

TIP and liaison models

FINTRAC’s “backgrounder” on TIP sheets describes them as a fast tracked channel for sharing “emerging indicators, trends, and typologies” with key financial entities through trusted channels, and designed to improve the “timeliness, quantity, and quality” of extortion-related reporting compared to traditional methods. FINTRAC says it will also use private-sector feedback to update indicators more quickly as criminal methods evolve.

Another FINTRAC backgrounder describes how the liaison officer function will facilitate sharing of tactical financial intelligence, including through onsite engagement with select law enforcement agencies to identify emerging extortion-related money-laundering indicators. FINTRAC said it would replicate, and improve for anti-extortion purposes, a 2025 rapid intelligence pilot launched to bolster intelligence gathering related to the illicit fentanyl trade.

Champagne also set expectations directly in a letter to FINTRAC CEO Sarah Paquet, directing the agency to mobilize resources immediately and deploy liaison officers in targeted areas, and to provide a progress update by March 31, 2026.

Champagne also set expectations directly in a February 12 letter to Paquet, directing the agency to “mobilize resources” immediately, to “expeditiously deploy liaison officers” in targeted areas, and to provide a progress update by March 31, 2026.

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